Author(s): Nazan Yıldız / Language(s): Turkish
Publication Year: 0
Questioning traditional patriarchal reality and concept of gender in her versatile novels ranging from science fiction to ecology, fairy tales to postmodernism, Jeanette Winterson (1959-), one of the most prominent British writers of today, criticizes capitalism, totalitarian governments, colonialism, and consumer culture alongside patriarchal society which she regards as the main cause of these ideological systems. The concept of reality shaped by men, which is at the target of Winterson, famous for her feminist perspective, is kneaded with humor and examined in the context of historical reality, gender, sexuality, and identity. Winterson wrote The Stone Gods, the subject of this paper, in 2007, and produced a peerless work by amalgamating her stance against patriarchal discourse with a postmodern and ecocritical approach. Particularly in the second part of the novel, which takes place on Easter Island, Winterson depicts how the environment is destroyed through the power struggle among patriarchal tribes. Nature has become unable to give life to human beings due to the patriarchal administration. When two feuding tribal chiefs cut down the last tree on the island, ecological death on the island, that is the death of human beings in a symbolic sense, comes true. Women who want to prevent this destruction are met with violence by men. In other words, Winterson highlights a gender-driven and nature-destroying hierarchy of power. This hierarchy is directly related to ecofeminism and the social position of women. In this context, this paper aims to examine the nature, woman/man, and power relations in Winterson’s novel The Stone Gods with an ecofeminist lens.
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